Rapid urbanization is the main reason for the disappearance of villages with rich cultural and historical heritage. In order to reverse this trend and achieve the purpose of protecting and using ancient village resources, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and the Ministry of Finance jointly announced the list of "Traditional Chinese Villages". The goal of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of this administrative method by using the spatial analysis method of geography. Jiangxi Province was chosen as the research area for two reasons: the number of Traditional Chinese Villages in the province exceeds the average of all provinces in China; and the related data are available to our research team. Two hypotheses of this study are tested that the disappearance of traditional villages is most obvious around cities; and that identifying "Traditional Chinese Villages" has prevented to some extent the disappearance of old architecture and the historical heritage of ancient villages. This study used nightlight remote sensing, gross domestic product, and population data in grid format and road network data to comprehensively determine and map the zones of urban influence in Jiangxi Province. It then compared the map of urban influence zones with the density of the Traditional Chinese Villages in the province. The results support the two hypotheses. Finally, this article showed that although the naming of Traditional Chinese Villages cannot restore the disappeared ancient villages, it has thwarted the disappearing trend to a certain extent. We recommend that when identifying and naming Traditional Chinese Villages in the future, relevant government departments should pay more attention to ancient villages around cities.
Addressing the land issue is the key for implementing the rural revitalization strategy. Land consolidation and capitalization as important means to improve land quality and promote rural-urban integration have been the hot topic of discussion. This study took the demolition and reclamation policy in Guangdong Province as a case, analyzed the mechanism of capitalization effect of rural construction land reclamation, and clarified its influence on rural revitalization as well as rural-urban integration. First, during the implementation of rural construction land reclamation, the "weak relationship" dominated by market mechanism and the "strong relationship" dominated by land circulation play important roles in the renovation and reclamation, which are the main ways to realize land capitalization. Second, rural construction land reclamation mainly promotes rural revitalization through structural reconstruction, spatial reorganization, production mode transformation, and ecological environment optimization. Finally, rural construction land reclamation takes cross-regional market trading platforms as the carrier to guide the circulation of land, capital, and other factors between urban and rural areas. Meanwhile, it guarantees the development right of rural areas by setting the protection price and the right of preemption, which realizes the smooth flow of factors between urban and rural areas.
Based on the national strategy of Yangtze River Delta economic integration and regional coordinated development and after measuring the urbanization coordination level of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2001 to 2016, this study analyzed the spatial characteristics and formation mechanism of the coordinated development of urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta by using the methods of Theil Index, center of gravity track, hotspot analysis, and spatial econometric model. The results show that: 1) the overall difference of urbanization coordination level in the Yangtze River Delta is fluctuating and decreasing, and intra-provincial differences are shrinking while the difference between the provinces is expanding; the spatial distribution of the coordination level of urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta is generally higher in the east and lower in the west. The pattern of coordinated development of urbanization has experienced little change in the northwest-southeast direction and the center of gravity is relatively stable over the years, but the spatial correlation scope and dispersion degree are expanding. 2) According to the characteristics of spatial agglomeration, there is a significant positive spatial autocorrelation in the coordination level of urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta. The hotspots are gradually converging to the economically developed areas such as Shanghai, Southern Jiangsu, and Northern Zhejiang. The cold spots are stably distributed in Northern Anhui, Southern Anhui, and southern Zhejiang. 3) All factors that affect the spatial characteristics of coordinated development of urbanization are significantly positive. The level of economic development still dominates coordinated regional development of urbanization. Population agglomeration is more obvious for the improvement of the level of coordinated development of urbanization of neighboring cities. Giving full play to the driving role of the highly coordinated area of urbanization will realize the balanced development of the Yangtze River Delta.
Urbanization in China has changed from speed focused to quality focused. The core of this change is to realize the urbanization of people, that is, the citizenization of agricultural population who have moved to cities and towns. After land requisition, the suburban landless farmers often need a new place of living, and the residential form has changed from the original homestead construction to the coexistence of various forms. Based on the empirical data of the Yangtze River Delta, this study took the social-spatial perspective as the main approach of research, and used regression models to analyze the impact of residential spatial differentiation on the social integration of landless farmers in suburbs. The study found that housing type, as the main dimension of residential space differentiation, affects the social integration of landless farmers in suburbs, while human capital factors such as individual monthly income and housing type work together. On this basis, we put forward policy recommendations from the aspects of implementing mixed residential mode, enhancing employment ability, and increasing government input to improve the level of social security, with a view to promoting the citizenization process of landless farmers.
In recent years, urban innovation input feature has played an increasingly role in the economic integration process of the Yangtze River Delta. This study used the spatial econometric model and Markov chain to measure the economic spillover effects of innovation input feature based on the spatial panel data of cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2010 to 2017, and revealed the impact of innovation spillovers on the pattern of regional economic convergence under the economic integration of the Yangtze River Delta. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) The innovation features and economic growth of the Yangtze River Delta show strong spatial agglomeration characteristics, the trend of Moran's I value of innovation input feature and economic growth are similar, and the Moran's I value of innovation output feature shows an unstable trend in time series. Both innovation input and output features have positive effects on economic growth. 2) From the global view, the innovation input feature has a significant spillover effect on regional economic growth, and the spillover effect of innovation input feature is greater than the direct effect, suggesting that innovation investment will affect the pattern of economic integration development of the Yangtze River Delta; while the spatial spillover effect of the innovation output feature is not significant. 3) From the local view, cities adjacent to higher levels of innovation input are positive for economic growth by local positive spillover, and cities adjacent to lower levels of innovation input are negative for economic growth by local negative spillover. Under the spillover effects of innovation input feature, the economic growth of the Yangtze River Delta region has formed a "club convergence" phenomenon, and the spatial pattern of the regional economic structure is changing from a high level convergence in the center of the Yangtze River Delta to a low level convergence in the periphery. 4) The cities with economic growth type transferred are mainly concentrated at the provincial boundaries, showing complex transfer mechanisms under the effect of local spillovers. The developed regions and the developing regions tend to be stable and have obvious inertia of spatial transfer, and the spillover effect of innovation will exacerbate the Matthew effect of economic growth in the Yangtze River Delta. Based on the results of the analysis that innovation spillovers promote club convergence of economic growth, this study proposed specific recommendations for the development of regional integration in the Yangtze River Delta.
During the process of urban construction in the new era, the Chinese government advocates for the development of beautiful towns and cities with historic memories and cultural context. The renewal and development of historic blocks, which are the carrier of local history and culture, is a vital part of implementing the new urbanization strategy. Based on Foucault's and Harvey's theories of the production of space, this research analyzed the process of spatial reconstruction and subjects' cultural practice of Yongqing Fang, Guangzhou City. We found that culture was a crucial factor for the smooth transformation of Yongqing Fang. With the efforts of the residents with cultural identity and other social agents, the cultural value was officially recognized and protected. Hence, the renewal of Yonqing Fang could be gradually carried out under the framework of cultural protection. After the renewal, Yongqing Fang was transformed from a living space to a cultural consumption space, where cultural production and consumption showed a high degree of commercialization. The local culture was mixed with exotic culture, resulting in low satisfaction of tourists' cultural experience. The case of Yongqing Fang highlights culture as an active factor that directly plays a role in the multi-subject spatial production of historic districts, which enriches the theory of spatial production from the perspective of culture. This case is of reference for the implementation of the new urbanization strategy. In the process of urbanization, we should build towns and cities with locally historic and cultural characteristics.
Due to the rapid urbanization, rural areas in China is undergoing drastic transformation and reconstruction, showing a diverse scene of rural spatial differentiation. With the transformation of rural areas from agricultural production space to multifunctional space such as production, living, and ecological, the potential value of spatial elements such as human settlements, natural landscapes, history, and culture in rural areas is gradually emerging. Examining the research theme of the commodification of rural space can meet the requirements of theoretical development and practice. There exist only a few studies on the commodification of rural space conducted by the Chinese human geography community, which is still in its infancy, and the discussions on the formation mechanism of rural space commodification lack depth. Using field surveys and unstructured interviews, this study took Xixiang Village of Suzhou City as a study case to examine the process and mechanism of rural space commodification in developed areas. Field surveys conducted in Xixiang Village in September and October 2019 investigated the village building layout, industries, and residents' lifestyles. Seventeen respondents were interviewed on issues concerning the development and change of the village, production and daily life, and tourism development. The results show that the commodification of rural space is a process in which rural space itself gradually becomes a kind of commodity under market economy conditions that can obtain profit. The spatial connotation of this process embodies in space representation and space practice. From the perspective of space representation, the commodification of Xixiang Village space expanded from the commodification of agricultural products in the rural space to the commodification of the rural space itself, which was accompanied by the transformation from a single agricultural production space to a multifunctional space combining production and consumption. From the perspective of space practice, based on the actor-network theory, the commodification of space in Xixiang Village is driven by the connection of various heterogeneous actors inside and outside. Common interests of all actors are the basis of the network development, and the subjectivity and agency of non-human actors must be given full attention.
